🏛️ America’s AI Playbook: Bold Moves, Blunt Edges
So, Thursday evening, the Trump administration quietly dropped its long-awaited “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan.” It’s a 28-page sledgehammer, honestly - dense with ambition, light on caution. Ninety-ish federal action items. Big energy.
The gist? Three broad targets:
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Speed up innovation (especially military and commercial),
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Pour concrete under America’s AI infrastructure, and
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Win the global AI power struggle - like, decisively.
But here’s where it gets spicy:
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Agencies must scrub “ideological bias” from AI. The wording there raised eyebrows - what’s bias and who decides?
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There’s a clause about yanking federal funding from states that “overregulate.” That’s not a nudge; it’s a bat.
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And export controls? Tightened. Any cutting-edge compute or chips going to certain countries - nope.
Some folks cheered the assertiveness. Others said it reads more like a tech Manifest Destiny than policy. Time will tell.
📈 AI Stocks: Up, Down, and Somewhere Sideways
Friday’s markets were... jumpy but mostly leaning happy. Tech carried things again. AI is still the golden cow - at least for now.
Broadcom (AVGO) hit new highs. Big reason? Their AI ASIC chips are flying off shelves (metaphorically - these go in hyperscaler racks). Meanwhile, Nvidia, Supermicro, etc., all cruised upward.
But it wasn’t a party for everyone. Intel dropped fast - over 7% - after weak forward guidance. Investors aren’t convinced they’ll catch up to AMD or Nvidia in the AI chip race.
Then there’s C3.ai. Yikes. Nearly 11% gone in a day. CEO Tom Siebel is stepping down - health issues. The timing? Rough. Some analysts are sniffing around for acquisition rumors now. Feels like a chessboard’s being cleared.
🏢 Microsoft: Cutting Deep, Hoping Big
Microsoft’s been slicing jobs again - 9,000 more in July, after another ~6,000 earlier this summer. CEO Satya Nadella admitted in an internal memo that the process has been emotionally exhausting. And publicly? He’s calling it “messy,” even invoking past industry shakeups to set expectations.
Behind the layoffs: a complete reorientation around AI. We’re talking foundational models, Copilot-everything, and smart PCs that supposedly do more than they actually do (yet). The company’s reshuffling priorities, and not everyone’s invited to the next chapter.
There’s a July 30 town hall and earnings call. Should be... interesting.
🌏 China’s AI Counterplay: Sanctioned, Not Slowed
Over in Shanghai, AI innovation continues - sanctions or not. Local tech firms showcased homegrown LLMs, robotics, and chips designed to replace banned Western gear. The message: “We’ll build it ourselves.”
Then, during the same week, China’s premier floated a new global AI consortium. The goal? Loosen the U.S. grip on global AI norms and offer something more... collaborative, or at least differently centralized.
The West calls it fragmentation. Beijing calls it balance.
🧠 Experts Weigh In: “Where Are the Guardrails?”
Usama Fayyad, AI vet and Northeastern professor, applauded the U.S. plan’s big-picture ambition - but warned it skips over crucial details: ethics, workforce retraining, cross-agency coordination. There’s also barely a whisper about health, education, or marginalized communities.
Multiple think tanks echoed similar concerns: The speed is impressive. The governance? Still feels optional.